Depend on the government leaders.....

There will be no cuts!

We will see only a slowing in the borrowing as it will prevent  the economy from disappearing. Soon as the Chinese come back into the market and buy us out of this political mess, and they will,  you have to wonder what it will cost us.

 Probably our empire. But not until the next big bust cleans out all the scum in Washington, right?

We have to remember that our government has been running deficits for 60-70 years and can do so for much longer because all world's economies depend on us to buy more of their shit then they buy of ours.

Besides, deficits are a political problem!

 Somebody has to lose and it ain't going to be pretty. And after the next bust, there will be more people bitching about deficits but still unable or refusing to vote for solving these deficits!

P.s we will always have deficits because that's how politicians can appease their constituencies and stay in power. (referred to as compromise and deal making in Washington.) Don't worry, our grandchildren will be bitching about deficits long after we are gone!

Gonzalo Lira: “Dream A Little Dream”: How Long Would It Take To Pay Off The U.S. Federal Government Debt?

How much would they have to cut, in order to pay off the national debt? And how long would it take, to retire that national debt in its entirety?

Well, in order to figure this out, first they’d have to get honest about exactly how much is the U.S. Federal government’s debt. (Honesty is a perverse side-effect of the Responsibility Bug and the Austerity Virus. Scientists are working feverishly to try to stop this honesty stuff.)

Total outstanding Treasury debt is $9.7 trillion—but that’s not the entire Federal government debt. To those $9.7 trillion, you have to add another $4.6 trillion, which corresponds to “intragovernmental holdings”—basically IOU’s or markers the Federal government has put in the famed “Social Security lockbox”.

Thus the total Federal government debt: $14.35 trillion.

That’s the number the Congress and President of our dreams has to close: $14.35 trillion. Or to be more precise: $14,344,491,791,132.71.

The current deficit is $1.65 trillion per year—but that bald number doesn’t help up much.

A better factoid would be knowing, How much revenue does the U.S. Federal government bring in per year, via taxes, fees and so on?

That would be $2.173 trillion, according to the OMB.

So let’s imagine that the Capitol Hill and the White House of our dreams agree to immediately cut all deficit-expenditures—that is, cut $1.65 trillion right off the top—and then they also agree to pay down the national debt on an “accelerated” schedule: Let’s say they set aside a third of all Federal revenue to pay down the Federal government debt. In other words, for every $3 of revenue the Federal government brings in, $2 will be for government services and operations, and another $1 will be for paying down the debt.

A third of $2.173 trillion is $724 billion.

So they start paying off the Federal government debt at this pace: $724 billion a year—a TARP per year. The Federal government “makes do” with just the two-thirds of its revenue, $1.45 trillion.